The truth behind the mask
by Nimalqua
Summary: When the Yugioh cast comes back from Egypt, they find that an old 'friend' has followed them back as well. Pretty soon they all start getting attacked again, but Saidi is innocent this time. Could it be another? This is after Anime Sonic's (my bf) story.
1. The truth behind the mask

"are we there yet?" the whiny voice of mokuba asked for what seemed for the hundrenth time. seto had given up and had given the reposobility of looking after mokuba to yami bakura. yami bakura looked at his watch, at a bunch of papers, held up his hand, pushed the button for the stewardess to come and waited.  
  
"yes sir?" the lady asked coming up to them, she seemed rather annoyed having called over at least 50 times in the past hour or so.  
  
"are we in japan yet?" yami bakura asked. the stewardess looked like she was ready to strangle the life out of both mokuba and yami bakura, but she still forced a smile.  
  
"no sir, we will be landing in approximatly in an hour and a half." she replied and then mumbled under her breath, "i hope you two burn in hell when you die." she smiled gaily and walked away to the next person who had pushed their button, seeking help. they wanted to know what the onboard movie was like, even though it was already playing right in front of their faces.  
  
"we'll be there in about an hour and a half." yami bakura said to mokuba. "ok." he nodded. bakura sat in the row ahead of them, dueling yugi with seto as his partner. saidi watched in perturbed anxiety. all three had wanted to duel each other so they had decided on team battling. they drew straws to see who would go with who, somehow seto had been paired up with yugi.  
  
"go blue eyes...." seto seemed half hearted and very sarcastic about the game, it was all yugi's fault that he was on his team so why should he try?  
  
"seto...bakura has that change of heart thing in his hands, remember? he only showed it to us last turn when i had used that magic card on him!" yugi wasn't enjoying playing with kaiba either but he had no choice. for once in his life, bakura wasn't really trying, yet he was whipping both yugi and seto's butts.  
  
"bakura...be careful!" saidi pleaded, "you might get a papercut or something from those vicious cards!" saidi's whining had pissed mai off. she leaned over to tea who was sitting next to her and whispered in her ear.  
  
"shall we toss her out the airplane, then find her corpse and kill her or shall we kill her, and then toss her out the airplane?" tea sighed, the decision was too hard for her headache between mokuba and saidi whining.  
  
"decisions, decisions, let's just kill her!" tea yelled. saidi heard and decided to shut up. mokuba fidgetted in his seat while joey and tristan suddenly started fighting in their seats. it wasn't working too well though because yami was sitting between both of them, trying not to be totally beaten up.  
  
"are we there yet?" mokuba asked again. yami bakura checked his watch, looked at a bunch of papers...it was plainly obvious he didn't know how to tell time.  
  
"would you like something to drink?" a tall, slim, fit brunette pushed a cart up to them. her curvature stood out really nicely underneath the stewardesses uniform. she hid her eyes in her bangs and under the hat she wore though, as if she didn't want anyone to see or recognize who she was.  
  
"coke." tea said as bakura lay down the change of heart card.  
  
"ha! your blue eyes is now mine! with it, i attack the darkmagician of yours yugi." yugi groaned and closed his eyes, their life points were now at -1000. that was the farthest they had decided to go. bakura still stood at 1300. saidi cheered with glee and jumped up, clasping her arms around bakura's neck.  
  
"you know, it would've helped if you hadn't been watching the movie haf the time seto." yugi commented under his breath.  
  
"ssshhhh!" seto said putting back on his earphones to listen to the movie. the stewardess pushed her cart up to their row. bakura and yugi ordered their drinks as seto was oblivious to them. yugi nudged him when it was his turn to order. he was almost about to hit yugi over the head, it was at a very good point in the movie. the guy had accidently poured molten metal on his hand and he wanted to see if he would be able to save what was left of it and be cripled for life, or have his hand off for life. he noticed the stewardess and decided not to hit yugi.  
  
"i'll have a..." he looked the stewardess up and down, his mouth gaping. she was gorgeous, absolutely beautiful. she awaited his answer while he gaped.  
  
"uhh...seto...." yugi said, "make your mind up, yami bakura's getting impatient and wants to ask her when we'll get to japan." seto snapped out of it.  
  
"i dunno, what do you recommend?" he asked. the stewardess smiled a nice shy smile.  
  
"i like the triple berry non-alcoholic margerita." she said, "it's nice and sweet, yet sour at the same time."  
  
"i'll have one of those!" he stated. she nodded and got it ready for him. he watched her the whole time, never letting his eyes leave her. she passed him the drink when she was done and continued onto helping yami bakura, mokuba, tristan, yami, and joey.  
  
"when do you think we'll be getting to japan?" yami bakura asked sipping his coke. "i can't figure out this stupid piece of junk." he said. the stewardess pointed to a few places on the watch face.  
  
"when the big hand reaches here, and the small hand reaches here, we should be in japan." she stated and then got tristan's mountain dew ready for him. joey asked her a question just before she left their section.  
  
"excuse me, but there's this question that's really bugging me." the stewardess nodded, "you seem really familliar and i was just wondering....do i know you?" he couldn't read the expression on her face.  
  
"are you using a pick-up line on me?" she asked laughing.  
  
"no, i was just wondering..."  
  
"if you are...you wouldn't want to get involved with my life." she brushed a couple bangs out of her eyes, "it's too complicated."  
  
"ooohhh...shot down!" tristan remarked. joey glared at him, he had been serious. the stewardess looked oddly familiar to him, but he just couldn't put his finger on the reason why. he got the feeling that he knew her, that he knew here really well, but WHO THE HECK WAS SHE?! he sat down ignoring tristan's taunting and slipped the earphones over his ears to listen to the on-board movie. tristan was annoyed after about ten seconds and started fighting with joey. they fell into the aisle and continued wrestling around with each other. a large ring had formed around them as they cheered them on. seto shook his head, it figured.  
  
"where the heck in the airport are we?" yugi asked.  
  
"we just got off the plane yugi, we're in the arrival, kinda, section." seto replied.  
  
"i have to go peeeeeeeeee!" mokuba whined crossing his legs in pain.  
  
"then go, noone's stopping you." yami bakura replied.  
  
"but where's the bathroom?"  
  
"who needs a bathroom, there's a water fountain over there."  
  
"yami bakura!"  
  
"what?!"  
  
"tea, take him." seto said handing his little brother to tea who looked as though she was about to burst as well. ten glasses of pop can have an affect on you after awhile.  
  
"hey wait!" mai cried, "i have to redo my make-up!" she ran after tea and mokuba as they ran to the restrooms. they emerged ten minutes later, all of them looking majorly relieved.  
  
"what took you guys so long?" yami asked.  
  
"mokuba got his foot stuck between the stalls somehow." tea shook her head, with mokuba, it figured.  
  
"don't blame me! the guy with one arm pushed me!" mokuba stated.  
  
"right..." yami bakura looked ready to laugh, "now we can go, if we can somehow pry yugi away from the hotdog stand." everyone turned to see yugi balancing a large pile of at least twenty hotdogs covered in mounds of ketchup, mustard, and relish. they volunteered the hotdogs to 'help a needy cause' and soon yugi was begging to go and buy more.  
  
"please! you guys ate them all! i never get any! just let me have one!" they grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him through the halls, screaming the whole way. finally yami bakura threatened yugi to send his soul to the shadow realm if he didn't shut up, right in front of the pharoah too. everyone was impressed, everyone except yami of course.  
  
"where the heck are our bags seto?!" saidi asked. they passed under the sign of the suitcase with an arrow pointed straight ahead.  
  
"i don't know saidi, i'm terribly lost, confused, and stupid." he said sarcastically.  
  
"well i'm sure we can help you get your bearings back." she said trying to comfort him, not getting the point that he had been making fun of her. a couple of them stiffled some giggles as they walked into the large room with the conveyor belt loaded with their luggage. saidi got it and flashed seto a dark look. "you're a mean man seto kaiba! you know that?"  
  
"tell me something i don't know!" he stated and slipped into the crowd before she could react. they got their luggage as mokuba came racing up to them with a cart to carry the bags. they piled their things on it as saidi went back and forth from the conveyor belt to the cart.  
  
"37.....38...." yami bakura counted in awestruck.  
  
"isn't she at fifty?" yami asked. "i thought it was 10." joey stated. saidi came back and added three more bags to the pile that towered above all of their heads. there had to be at least 3 dozen bags in there.  
  
"my god saidi! did you forget to pack the kitchen sink?!" mai said sarcastically. she only had twelve bags as it was.  
  
"no," saidi patted one of the irregular looking bulging bags in the pile, "it's in here." they each had to get two carts each to get all the bags into seto's limo waiting out front. what surprised joey the most about saidi's bags, is somehow, all 4 dozen of them were hot pink. he ran back in because he forgot one of his bags, seto went with him because they had elected him to return all the carts. they didn't speak while they walked into the building, there was nothing to say to each other. dodging the huge onslaught of people, joey was able to grab his bag from the conveyor belt, just before it stopped. seto returned the carts, getting over $4 of change returned to him.  
  
"you ready to go?" joey asked carrying the large blue suitcase with him as he walked up to seto.  
  
"sure...what...." he paused as something caught his eye. joey noticed the turned around.  
  
"hey, it's that stewardess!" he commented. they watched her walk out the door and hail a taxi. she dissappeared inside the taxi and was off. there was certainly something familiar about her.  
  
"she kinda looks like...." joey tried to find the words. "someone familiar...."  
  
"someone we've seen before...and has helped us." they both paused and looked at each other. it was plainly obvious now. it made so much sense, the alikeness and all, they should've seen it sooner.  
  
"pegasus's guard!" they stated at the same time, an icy cold fear tingled up and down their spines. 


	2. The throwing star maze

"It couldn't be!" Joey stated.  
  
"It is!" Seto nodded. It was Pegasus's female guard that had helped them in egypt. What was she doing in Japan now? Was Pegasus here as well?  
  
"Why do you think she's here?" Joey asked remembering how she had faught for them, trying to save their lives. It was strange when you thought about it, she probably had no relation or even cared about Pegasus from the way she had acted in Egypt.  
  
"I dunno." Seto shrugged. "And frankly i don't care." he headed towards the doors of the airport to emphasize his point, as if there wasn't even a point to even think anymore about this guard anymore. But there was, why was she there? The question plagued his mind as he remembered her smile, the small shy smile she had had. There was something about here that just didn't fit the picture. What was it? She didn't act like any other normal person would. Joey reluctantly follwed and piled his suitcase somehow in the back of seto's limo. The weight was enough to almost make the front tires come off the ground. They got into the limo as seto fumbled with the money he had gotten from the machine when he had returned the carts. He cursed when a couple pieces fell to the ground and bent to pick them up.  
  
A dark figure stood on top of the building above watching intently as seto kneeled down to pick up the couple dimes and quarters. It smirked and held the piece of metal in his hand. He twisted his body suddenly and it came flying out of his hand, aimed straight at seto's head. The razor sharp throwing star sang as it whizzed through the air and closed off the short distance almost instantly. His ears caught the sound and as he looked up he gasped. The thunk was really loud, audible to anyone around as all eyes went onto Seto. He couldn't believe it, right between his eyes. He gasped and passed out, his word pitch black. The last thing he remembered was her. She had appeared out of nowhere, but how? He hadn't seen her face, but he knew it was her, it had to be. Noone else could have done what she had just done.  
"Seto!" Mokuba cried seeing him hit the pavement.  
  
"Aaaahhhh....shit!" yami bakura commented. They jumped out of the limo and tried nudging him awake, trying to get him to come to. Finally he did, groaning and clutching his ehad in pain.  
  
"Seto, you alright?" Mokuba asked extremely worried about his brother.  
  
"I don't know." he replied looking around. Where the fuck had she gone? Why the hell was he even looking for her in the first place?  
  
"Probably just jetlag." Tea said trying to come up with an excuse for him passing out, "C'mon you guys, let's go home." they agreed and helped Seto up and into the car. It'd be a long ride before they all got home.  
She watched them drive away into the distance, her long hair billowing in the wind. No expression was displayed on her face. She scanned the crowd quickly trying to see if maybe they'd still be there. No one was there, no one at all. She peered onto the top of the building, for she was only standing on a small balcony. Noone was up there either.  
  
She sighed and pulled the throwing star she had caught out of her hairbrush. The effort was hard and took some time but finally after her hands had been soaked in her own blood, she was able to add it to the large collection of the throwing stars she had already on her belt. All 20 of them gleamed in the sun, glittering like rubies. 


	3. Chp 3: The attacks begin

"Hey Seto!" Mokuba ran into Seto's room wearing some kind of Egyptian mask. "Check this out!" the mask held different and distintive hieroglyphics.  
  
"Where'd you get that?" he asked hardly paying attention to what Mokuba was wearing as he threw his suitcase onto the bed. He had been with Mokuba when they had bought it so it was nothing new to him.  
  
"The bazaar!" Mokuba's smile reached from ear to ear.  
  
"It's cool." he admitted and collapsed on the bed, too tired to do anything else. Mokuba put the mask down and jumped on the bed a couple times trying to catch Seto's attention. He had drinken allot of coffee on the plane and couldn't keep from not moving.  
  
"Seto, can we go play phoosball?"  
  
"Mmmmm..." Seto mumbled.  
  
"You're hopeless." Mokuba huffed and jumped off the bed. "I'll go get one of the butlers to play with me then!"  
  
"Mmmm..." Seto turned over and closed his eyes. He was so tired, tired from the exhausting day. Who had tried killing him earlier on? The picture ran through his mind. It had been a blur before, her diving in front and catching it just a couple of inches from his head. He shivered and then remembered something he had forgotten. There had been something on her that had scared him, what was it again?  
  
Throwing stars. Twinkling, scintillating under the sun's glare, her whole belt had been clad in them. Why? What the hell was going on now? He fell asleep before he could think anymore, exhaustion finally having conceived his weary body.  
Everything after went along normally. They had to go back to school of course, against Joey's wishes, and everything was fine until one day when Yugi was walking home one night.  
  
He whistled happily as he went along, it had been a good day at school and he was in a good mood. Nothing would be able to destroy it, well, almost nothing. He turned down a road, about a block away from the game shop, and continued walking down the road, not noticing that someone else was behing him and following him stealthily. He stopped when he finally heard it and turned around but they had already moved and were in front of him. He turned around to meet with a fist across his face.  
  
He crashed down to the ground and dropped the books he had been carrying. A yelp of pain aroused from his throat. The person who had attacked him walked up to him slowly and kicked him in the gut. Yugi cried out in pain once more and spat blood onto the road in a sudden convulsion. Suddenly a light glowed from within his puzzle and yami got up to face the guy.  
  
"Why do you go around and attacking innocent people that did nothing to you?" he asked. The guy smiled.  
  
"Because it's my job." he stated and suddenly he threw two or three throwing stars. Yami panicked and ducked. He rolled along the ground and the guy tried hitting him over and over again. He couldn't send his soul to the shadow realm, it'd be stopping him long enough to be hit by some throwing stars he'd have thrown before losing his soul. Sweat poured down his forehead and suddenly he found himself in a dead end, nowhere to go. The man laughed, four throwing stars in each of his hands between his fingers as he approached yami.  
  
"I thought this was going to be at least a little bit harder!" He laughed as he raised his hand before the dumpster behind him and got ready to throw the remaining stars in his hand and end yami. He had stalled too long. Any second now he'd release the stars on him. He couldn't anticipate exactly so there was no point in trying.  
  
A sharp whizzing sound pierced through the air and a throwing star from nowhere hit the guy's sleeve and pinned it to the dumpster. He stared in fright at the star that was going through the dumpster, through plain metal. It was the time he needed and yami sent the guy's soul to the shadow realm. He retired back to his soul room thinking that there was no danger left. Yugi looked around in confusion and noticed the man pinned to the dumpster. That was weird.  
  
He walked out of the alley slowly and unsurely returning to his books and continued on his way. He didn't notice the figure on top of the building, three throwing stars in each hand, her hair blowing in the breeze, watching him leave.  
  
^Yami, what the heck just happened?^ 


	4. Chapter 4: New targerJoey Wheeler

"You were attacked?!" Tea couldn't believe her ears. It was the next day before school and Yugi had finally revieled what had happened to him the other day. The others couldn't believe their ears either.  
  
"So a throwing star just came out of nowhere and pinned the guy to the dumpster." Tristan thought over the point before Seto burst out laughing. They stared at him intensely.  
  
"What's with you?" Joey asked glaring evily at him. It was obvious he was looking for a fight with Seto. He continued laughing for a while, tears leaking out of his eyes until he finally stopped, gasping for breath.  
  
"I mean come on!" Seto exclaimed trying not to laugh, "A throwing star that went through a dumpster! Yugi!" Seto exclaimed catching his breath, "You're so on crack!" Joey lunged at his throat just as the bell rang and everyone ran off to their different classes, making Joey miss Seto by just a couple of inches.  
  
"Man..." He swore, "I was so close!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
"And so after you pull back the skin and muscle layer of the fish, I'd like you to examine the stomach content of your fish to see if you can identify what it ate last, and what kind of habitat it lived in!" The science teacher droned on as Seto spaced out in class.  
  
*God! This is so boring!* he poked the scapel through the fish's eye, making his lab partner cringe. She had blonde hair put up in little pigtails and obviously wore tons of make-up. Just for the heck of it he popped the eye he had sliced out of the fish's head and 'accidentally' rolled it over in her direction.  
  
Her scream echoed throughout the laugh as she ran over to the garbage can, and threw up. Seto laughed silently to himself as the teacher told everyone to stop what they were doing and accompanied the green tinted girl to the hospital room.  
  
Score 1 for Seto Kaiba, 0 for the school. Finally the teacher came back, but by that time there wasn't enough time to finish the disection and the teacher assigned a question sheet of homework. Seto took one look at it and finished it in about ten seconds. He shook his head and decided to think for the rest of the class and immediatly the picture of the throwing star being hurled towards him flashed through his mind, sending a shiver down his spine.  
  
Suddenly he remembered the other case with Yugi being attacked. Was there any connection between the two cases? His mind slipped to the image of her catching the throwing star, saving his life. Wait a minute....Yugi had been saved too by someone who was adept in throwing star skills.  
  
How come she was involved with this? Was she trying to protect them, or just waiting for the right time to....kill them. The bell rang, shattering his thoughts as he gathered up his things and left to pile his things up in his locker, and head to next class.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Joey ran down the field, panting heavily, sweat running down his face. His best friend Tristan ran beside him as they tried to outrun each other. The oxygen deprivation in their arms and legs screamed for mercy, burning with intense pain, but neither of them would back down. Each of them had to win this race. Off to the side of the field, the rest of the gym class cheered them on, for all of the others were way behind them, and still they continued sprinting.  
  
Suddenly something flashed across the field, something silver. It caught Joey's eye but before he could think of anything else, as it hurdled towards him, it was caught between his legs and he fell flat on his face. Tristan never noticed as he flew right by him to the finish line that was right up ahead and crossed the line, wining the race.  
  
Joey gasped in pain as he hit the ground, hard and loud. His hands were dragged across the rough ground, opening up into many little cuts, and the blood flowed freely out of his hands as his knees hit the ground. The pain was intense, but he bit his lip, trying not to cry out as he skidded a couple of feet and finally stopped. By the time had was able to figure out what had happened, hands were pulling him up and he found himself staring into his gym teacher's face.  
  
"Wheeler, you alright?" he asked sounding very concerned. He noticed his cuts covering his arms and legs and immediatly searched for someone who could bring him to the medical room. His eyes fell upon Yugi and shrugged, Yugi wasn't a key member to the gym class anyways.  
  
"Motoh! Take Wheeler to the medical room." he commanded and Yugi nodded. Joey leaned on him painfully and limped across the field.  
  
"What happened?" Joey through clenched teeth. It felt like he had twisted his ankle.  
  
"Something flew across the field and you tripped on it." Yugi replied.  
  
"What the hell would do that?" Joey asked as they approached the building. Yugi didn't know how to reply and dropped him off at the medical room, too busy thinking to himself. He returned to class and regretfully found out they were doing high jump. Not the best activity for a half pint. He sighed as the gym teacher noticed him and told him it was his turn, since he had missed it. He lined up on the right and ran in a half circle towards the mat, knowing this would probably be hopeless. Left, right, left, and over the....Smack!  
  
He hit the bar and almost landed on the mat, but fell off the side as the bar fell down to the ground in a clatter. He sighed as the gym teacher scowled at him. It was going to be another one of those days.  
  
Joey returned after Yugi had been told to sit out, he was all bandaged up and wanted to participate, but the gym teacher told him to sit off to the side. He had noticed Joey was limping slightly. He had twisted his ankle during the fall and it hurt alot. As the others took their turns, waiting to be eliminated, the bell rang, announcing it was lunch time and they hurried off to get changed out of their gym strip. Changing quickly they met up with the others for lunch.  
  
As they ate their food in the cafeteria amongst alot of talking Joey went through his deck he had left in his locker during gym, not trusting the high crime rate that had been happening lately in the boys change room. One boy had had his whole student uniform stolen once, and had had to go home because he didn't have another one at school. During the middle of winter, walking home in your gym strip hadn't been too fun for the kid.  
  
He shuffled through the rest of his deck and paused. Tristan immediatly noticed the look on his face.  
  
"Something wrong Joey?" He asked.  
  
"I dunno." He replied and frantically shuffled through the deck another time. He shook his head and searched through the deck another time, everyone's eyes were on him now as they noticed a nervous bead of sweat running down his head.  
  
"What's wrong?" Tea asked as Joey looked up, a look of huge shock planted across his face.  
  
"It was here this morning!" He stated trying to make sense of the whole mess.  
  
"Whoa!" Bakura commented, "No need for hypervetilating! What's missing!?" Joey looked him into his eyes, beggingly.  
  
"My Red Eyes, it's gone!" 


End file.
